Heidfeld admits his fears for F1 future.

Nick Heidfeld has for the first time admitted that he is worried about his Formula 1 future – and that he is 'fulfilling neither my own expectations nor those of the team' in the sport this year.

The experienced German has endured a torrid time of things for much of 2008, out-qualifying BMW-Sauber team-mate Robert Kubica only twice in 13 outings as he has struggled to get Bridgestone's new Potenza tyres up to temperature sufficiently quickly in qualifying. That has left him both on the back foot come the races – where he has thus far scored just 41 points to Kubica's 55 – and under significant pressure to raise his game…fast.

Having driven for BMW since the Munich-based manufacturer's arrival in the top flight in its own right back at the beginning of in 2006, Heidfeld acknowledges that with no confirmation still of his 2009 plans as next year's grid begins to firm up, his present situation is 'bad'.

“I am fulfilling neither my own expectations nor those of the team,” the 31-year-old told German newspaper Bild, adding on the subject of whether he fears for his job: “Yes, I do. There have been two times when I did not know how it was going to continue for me – very difficult times.”

The other occasion when Heidfeld's F1 future lay in doubt was when he was dropped by Sauber at the end of an underwhelming 2003 campaign alongside three-time grand prix-winner Heinz-Harald Frentzen. With rumours that his managers are scouting out possible opportunities at Scuderia Toro Rosso, the man from Mönchengladbach confessed that he is currently 'observing the driver market, as I always do'.

“I want to remain with BMW next year and fight for the championship, though,” he asserted. “It would be really annoying if I was not able to do that.”

Encouragingly for Heidfeld, one of the two occasions on which he has out-qualified Kubica is for this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps – for which he will line up fifth on the grid to the Pole's eighth. The last time he started ahead of his team-mate – also in fifth position, at Silverstone back in July – he went on to finish in second place.

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Also, on a different note: if someone deserves to be booted out of one of the topteams it's Kovalainen, who has 43 points compared to Hamilton's 80 and just one podium and one lucky win eventhough McLaren has the fastest car on many of tracks.
Many times he's just plain slow, not only in qualifying but also in races. He's the least impressive driver on the grid save for Piquet.

Heidfeld deserves to be one of the drivers for BMW in 2009 as well. He's a good driver who had both Massa and Raikkonen beat when he was their team mate at Sauber. The only time he wasn't consistently beating his teammate was at Williams alongside Webber, although even then he scored more points in the races.
Don't forget last year he outscored Kubica by a considerable margin, and now after Spa he's trailing him by 11 points, while Kubica is supposed to be the next big thing. This year the car suits Kubica but next year all might be different.
If they can't get Vettel they might as well keep Heidfeld and be sure of good performance and feedback instead of gambling on a rookie (who anyway?)